1888, Mr. & Mrs. Bancroft on and off the stage: written by themselves, volume 1, page 90:

Grindoff, the miller, 'and the leader of a very brass band of most unpopular performers, with a thorough base accompaniment of at least fifty vices,' was played by Miss Saunders.

1900, The Training of Seamen, published in The Saturday Review, 3 November 1900, volume 90, number 2349, page 556:

I must confess that to me there is something almost pathetic in the sight of a body of bluejackets improving their muscles on the quarter deck by bar-bell exercise, accompanied by a brass — a very brass — band, [...]

Mr. REGINALD SMITH, KC, the publisher, followed, but he had hardly begun his very interesting remarks when a procession headed by a very brass band entered Smithfield from the west, and approached the platform.

1937, Blair Niles, A journey in time: Peruvian pageant, page 166:

There are soldiers, policemen, priests and friars, as well as a motley mass of women, children, babies and dogs, and upon special occasions a very brass band.

The padre in my neighborhood — Santa Ana — was having some kind of a fiesta, and had hired a very brass band. This band kept up its martial airs for hours and hours after I got home, with grand finales — or what each time I hoped would be the grand finale, every five minutes.

Of inferior composition.

1939, The New York times film reviews, volume 3:

As Honest Plush Brannon then, Mr. Beery is one of San Francisco's fancier con men and hence more brass than plush